After first meeting between Netanyahu and Biden was cancelled over the president’s COVID infection, the two appear poised for sit-down after Biden’s quarantine is completed.
By World Israel News Staff
President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s much-anticipated face-to-face meeting is back on this week according to Israeli media reports, after their initial plans for a meeting were axed after the president was diagnosed with COVID.
Netanyahu arrived in Washington D.C. Monday together with his wife, Sara, and a delegation which included relatives of Israelis held captive in the Gaza Strip, as well as former hostage Noa Argamani and her father, Yaakov Argamani.
The Israeli premier is slated to address a special joint session of Congress Wednesday, and had been scheduled to meet with Biden a day earlier, amid concerns in the White House that Netanyahu could use his address to criticize the administration’s handling of the Gaza war and the restrictions placed on the transfer of some weaponry to Israel.
Tuesday’s meeting was ultimately cancelled, however, after the president was diagnosed with COVID-19, prompting Biden to temporarily self-isolate at his private residence in Delaware.
On Monday, a day after bowing out of the 2024 presidential race, Biden announced that he would be staying “out of people’s hair for the next three-four days,” citing his COVID infection.
A U.S. official said Monday night, however, that a new meeting has been arrangement between Biden and Netanyahu during the prime minister’s stay in Washington.
The two leaders are now slated to meet on Thursday, a day after Netanyahu’s address to Congress.
On Tuesday, a report by The Times of Israel citing an unnamed American official echoed the claim.
According to a report by Israel’s Channel 12, President Biden will also meet with relatives of American captives held in Gaza Thursday.
Vice President Kamala Harris, who received Biden’s endorsement Sunday for the Democratic presidential nomination, will not attend Netanyahu’s address Wednesday, an aide told Politico, but will meet Netanyahu.
During their planned meeting, the aide said, Harris will convey “her view that it is time for the war to end in a way where Israel is secure, all hostages are released, the suffering of Palestinian civilians in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can enjoy their right to dignity, freedom, and self-determination.”